Love Fort Wayne Podcast
The Love Fort Wayne podcast amplifies the stories of everyday people who are loving and leading in Northeast Indiana to spark imagination, root inspiration, and ignite transformation.
Love Fort Wayne Podcast
Love Fort Wayne December Podcast: Anchored in Hope: A Story of Transformation, Calling, and Christ-Centered Recovery
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In this powerful and emotional episode, we sit down with Brandon Bower, Executive Director of The Lighthouse, to hear his personal story and calling to Christ-centered recovery. Brandon shares his heart for biblically based counseling and the transformative power of discipleship, mentorship, and authentic community.
We also explore the holistic ministry of The Lighthouse — from recovery and treatment programs to Friday night chapel and meals, community groups, a food pantry, and a thrift store — all rooted in walking alongside people with dignity, hope, and the love of Jesus. This episode is filled with testimony, encouragement, and a clear invitation to remain faithful to your calling while loving your community with humility and transformation in mind.
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SPEAKER_04Anyways, I get this job at this Christian-esque place, and about three months into it, um, my boss looks at me and says, You're too Christian. We want a secular program with just a little bit of Jesus sprinkled over top. I'm sitting here going, What in the world? You know, this is a Christian place.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, welcome everybody to the December episode of the Love Fort Wayne podcast. We are so glad that you have joined us for this episode. And if you're new to us, man, we love to highlight and amplify the stories of everyday people who are making a difference here in Fort Wayne that are loving our community with God's love. And we have a brother and friend here today, Mitch, who is doing that, Brandon Bauer from the Lighthouse. Thank you, brother, for being here with us today.
SPEAKER_04You're welcome. It's a fantastic um studio and a fantastic time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, thank you. Thank you. We're excited to have some conversation with you, Mitch. Yes, sir. Thanks for being with me as always, brother. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Yeah, we're excited about this one. Um, man, it's been a great year of conversations and we're winding down the year, but uh, we're excited about this conversation.
Brandon’s Family Roots And Dad’s Conversion
SPEAKER_01And Brandon, uh, I I'm pumped because people get a chance to not only learn a little bit more about the lighthouse if they don't know anything about it, but uh I'm excited that folks get a chance to hear from you and and hear your heart and hear your story and testimony. And I I would love to start there. Um, you know, what what's the story? What's your background in history uh and even the things that led you to the lighthouse ministry?
SPEAKER_04Sure. So uh first thanks for saving the best for last, right? Yeah, that's the last podcast of the year. Um no, so so my story starts um actually before I was born. Um my mom and dad met in a bar in Ohio, and um they were living that bar lifestyle. And and when I was born, my dad wanted something different for for his kids. So he started um going to churches, and is what he told my mom is the one that I don't fall asleep in is the one that I think that we need to be at. So he started attending church, um, um, unsaved, lost as all get out. Um, but he worked up at um International Harvester, and um there's a man in town, um Alan Biddle, he goes to Broadway Christian Church. Alan, Alan had a Bible study at Harvester, International Harvester, and he said, We're gonna, we're gonna go after the roughest dude here. And that was my dad. So Alan and his small team um pursued my dad. And actually, my dad got saved um at International Harvester um uh because of this Bible study. And then um at that time my mom wasn't saved, and and there was this like conflict, right? And my dad's like, I think I'm called to be a pastor. And my my mom's like you know, cracking open a beer saying, No, that's not what I signed up for. And um, within um three or so years, my mom um changed her heart and started following God. And um, so when I was five, they went off to Bible college. Um, and then my dad became a pastor later in life, and he took a small church in Chicago, inner city of Chicago, and he served there for about 35 years at this one church. It was a mission church, yeah, about a hundred people um at at the biggest attendance, um, never could fully support him. So um my dad then had a um a job during my junior high years at the Pacific Garden Mission, which is the the nation's largest homeless shelter. He was the head counselor there, and then he pastored this small church. So that that was my upbringing. Um, so as a pastor's kid, um, and and I'm sure other pastors' kids have this, you you have to look a certain way. And I had this um good boy outer shell, right? But my heart was deceitfully wicked. And um, I
Pastor’s Kid Struggles And Calling To Counseling
SPEAKER_04started pursuing sin and dark things, and um all while tell the world thought I was I was um the good pastor's kid, right? It didn't really explode until I went to college. So you lift the authority of your parents, right? You're off on your own. Yeah, um college age, um Brandon got in some trouble, and um that that just ripped open the the the facade of you're you faked this your whole life. And um that's where God met me. Um I believe I had made a profession of faith earlier, but there were it wasn't really true. Um it really wasn't really deep. Um but it grew. It grew. And um, so I was then forced into counseling, and um oh, this counselor was awful. It was awful, Jeff. He was he was like 80 years old, and um he he he didn't know how to talk to people, especially young kids. And um, I'm sitting there thinking, this is the worst stuff in the world. But he drove a really nice car, and I thought, if this guy could be this bad at counseling, I could make a killing at it. So um the the the the the mind, you know, the mind's a funny thing. So so I enrolled in in in counseling school, and in counseling school, I just learned more about my heart and how God really wanted it. And and through that whole process, you know, I'm I'm growing and changing and still still engaging in sin and and some of that kind of stuff, but but God is working in my heart and in my life and um transforming it as I'm trying to help other people and and my counseling get rich quick scheme. So that landed me in Fort Wayne. I decided um I was gonna try to go to Grace College and met my wife and um just landed in a secular job and you know, studying counseling, secular job, just newly
Clash With Secular Counseling Rules
SPEAKER_04married, have a couple kids. It just was empty. And you know, I call it the big box counseling centers, right? You you go and um you know, all day long they've got people scheduled, but you've got to help them, but you can't share your faith. And anytime you you broach that, you get in trouble. Um, and there's rules, you know, if they ask you questions, you can answer them. So then I became really good at getting them to ask the right questions so then I can share my faith. And then I got in trouble again. And I'm like, no, no, I'm following the rules, right? Um, and so I thought, well, maybe that place wasn't good. So then I left that big box counseling center for this big box counseling center, and that was the same, and then I left for another one, and um, and it just it just was empty. Helping people without the heart of the gospel is is empty. It might improve their life a little bit, but it's still um, they're still destined to hell. Yeah. Um, I left counseling altogether for a few years, did some social work stuff. Um, I remember walking in one day and my boss at the at the social workplace said, Um, you can no longer bring your Bible to work. She's like, That's that's an offensive book, and you can't wear your little cross and um a couple pictures on your wall need to come off because um it's too Jesus in here. Whoa. Um and um I gave my two-week notice. Yeah, and um found a place that was a Christian-based counseling center, and I thought, finally, finally, Jeff, I found it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and um what was the reaction to I'm giving my two weeks notice because you told me I'm too much Jesus.
SPEAKER_04So they were mad, they were mad that um it was a big uproar. Um, but um, I worked out my two weeks, I I removed the things they asked me to, except for my Bible because my Bible stayed on my desk. And um if if God is so real and He is the answer, and you're working with sick and broken and dying people, you can't not
Doors Close And The Lighthouse Vision Forms
SPEAKER_04share your faith. Um, at least this guy can't. Yeah. So, anyways, I I get this job at this Christian-esque place, and about three months into it, um, my boss looks at me and says, You're too Christian. We want a secular program with just a little bit of Jesus sprinkled over top. And I'm I'm sitting here going, What in the world? You know, this is a Christian place. Yeah. Um, I'm I I stayed there for a few more years, but it just was like tug and pull, like um uh, you know, stop preaching and actually do counseling with these people. And and it was counseling, it was just God-centered biblical counseling, and um just knew I didn't fit there. So uh went home one day to my wife, just just bawling. Like, what what do I do? This this isn't working. Fort Wayne is not faith-friendly in this counseling realm. And I said, we need to leave. So we applied all over the the country. Um, I had an interview in Utah and one in Anderson and one up in Michigan, and I had something over in Europe too. I was just, I was, I was looking for that place that would let me share my faith with broken people, um, with the past of addiction and and and some of that other um sin stuff in my life. I I wanted to be able to make a difference. And um, you know, the place in Anderson loved loved me, but they ended up hiring someone who was a bigger donor to take the job instead of me. And I was like, okay, you know, I've never been a director before. That it makes sense. And um, I got the job up in Michigan and I uh and I uh went to call the next day to make arrangements, and he's like, brother, I'm sorry. Overnight we we took over another agency and we eliminated the position I just hired you for. Wow. And it was like these doors just kept shutting. And um, I looked at my wife and said, Maybe I just need to start something. I I was I was totally joking. And she's like, No, you're right, you should. Um, and and I think if we knew how much how hard it would be, we would have never started the lighthouse. But but that's the history behind that. It was it was born out of frustration that God wasn't welcome in Fort Wayne, in the counseling settings, um, where broken people were. And and that's not to to diss all these other places. They have their place, they have their their um worldviews. Um, I just didn't fit in that in that worldview. And um, I wanted something more for Fort Wayne. And um, so we sat at our kitchen table with a group of friends, um, and
Burger King Beginnings To First House
SPEAKER_04and we we wrote out a vision for the lighthouse. And and um I'm working at this kind of seculary Christian job, and I'm and I'm really focused on on getting this started. And um, we started at the downtown Burger King, the one that's right across from the rescue mission. Yeah, yeah. We did life skills groups at Burger King. Wow. So anyone could show up and we bought them free cheeseburgers. So we we bribed them to come to our groups. And um, but but but what started as eight to ten homeless people grew to about 1520. Um and and someone heard about what we're doing and they gave us a house. And um, that started our residential program. And that's I think right when I first met Mitch was right when we got this first house. We started applying for grants. We now had stories, we now were doing some work. And Burger King came to us and said, We love what you're doing, but you don't fit in our Burger King space anymore. We had 30 some people every every um Tuesday night at Burger King. It's a lot of cheeseburgers, it hit us a lot of cheeseburgers. Um, but it was great. We had every everywhere I went, people were slipping me like Burger King gift cards because they knew what I was doing, and they're like, Hell, here, let me pay for that. And this one lady, she still sends me Burger King gift cards. And even though we haven't been at Burger King for for a long time, it's it's just her faithfulness and sending those and uh but but today all of that journey, all of that pain,
From Food Bank To Matthew 25 Model
SPEAKER_04all of that, all the way back to Alan Biddle um um seeing my dad uh has led to what what what we what we call the lighthouse. Uh it's a 28-bed men's biblical addiction program. So we have uh up to 28 men living with us at any given time. And then um, if that's not enough, um we we added some other stuff because we also saw the the area of town that we were living in, that they were really hurting. And um, there was no grocery stores and they had no real food banks. So so we we started what we thought was going to be a small food bank venture, and um uh last week we had 125 families and gave out over 5,000 pounds of food out of our small food bank there on State and Hobson. Oh my gosh. Um, Jeff, I can't keep my shelves full. Yeah, the the need in Fort Wayne is so great that that um I mean a week and a half ago or so, we had green beans, applesauce, and canned potatoes. That's the only thing we had on our shelf. Wow. And people were still like, thank you, we're hungry. Um, this this is great. And um we prayed as a staff, and within like 24 hours, we had so much food we didn't know what to do with it. We're like storing it in back corners, and um, but as soon as people know that the shelves are full, that'll be empty again. And it's just this this cycle of of um brokenness in Fort Wayne that that that we're that we're reaching. And food bank was never on the agenda, but but there was a day where I was reading uh Matthew chapter 25, and it said, um, feed the hungry and and take in the stranger. We were already taking in the stranger, right? Uh clothe the naked, um, visit those in prison and care for the sick. And so we we really took that to heart. So um we have the residential program, we have the food bank, we do clothing vouchers at our thrift stores to anyone who needs clothes, we have a prison outreach, and then we do free biblical counseling, which is our
Distinctives Of A Christ-Centered Program
SPEAKER_04care for the sick piece. So every one of those Matthew 25 pieces we are doing at the lighthouse, it helps guide and guard us, it helps direct us, and it helps us love in our community. And when you come to the lighthouse for addiction services or food or clothing, we slow the process down and we get to know you. Um, COVID did a really bad thing, it sped up everything. They had these drive-by food banks, right? Yeah, you drove through, left your windows up, put your mask on, they threw food in your trunk and you left. And they had no idea who you were. And that and that created a huge gap, a loneliness, a disconnect in our community. And we said, we're not going to be those people. Um, when you come in, we slow the process down. We get you coffee and and maybe some cookies or donuts, or um, and you meet with one of our care team and you're loved on. We just ask you questions, um, get to know you a little bit, what are your needs? And then we can refer people to other godly places in town, refer them to church, or ask them to come back to some of our support groups or or services, or because the relationship is where God is found, and everything that the lighthouse does is about those relationships.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Wow, what a story. Exactly. I mean, it's so powerful. The one there's a couple of things that come to heart, and I won't hog the mic from you, Mitch. I I I just think about uh the story that you told about I'm gonna use the word, it was felt like a a a sense of there was an unwelcome culture for biblically rooted counseling. And I think all three of us can look now and say, there's some the the ground has been tilled. Absolutely. And you know, so thank you for your faithfulness to say no. And but to say yes to to no, the there there is a foundational truth that the hurt, the lost, and the broken need, and I'm gonna root my my faith and my work in that. And people like you that say yes to that, it laid the groundwork for some of these counseling centers
Testimony: Sam’s Journey And Practical Care
SPEAKER_01and that we know that are saying the same thing. No, when you come in here, you're going to experience the love of Jesus and not just in talk, but in our values, our bylaws, our mission, and even the counseling work and the care that we we do for you. So thank you for that because it does. It takes men and women like you that would that would say yes.
SPEAKER_04This is our 12th year doing this, and and we it's just been fantastic. But but because it's such a rarity, people are coming from all over the United States to see what the lighthouse is doing, to see what Fort Wayne is doing, and they're trying to mimic what we're doing in other parts of the country. And it's almost set us, and and I know you experienced that at Love, um, just as um a standard that other other communities are looking for. Yeah. And if we if we pursued everyone that said, please put a lighthouse in our city, there's no way we could do it. Um, I mean, the funding and and the the groundwork is just not there. But you know, we had men from 20 different states in the last two years fly or drive in to the lighthouse program because what we're doing is not in existence across the United States. And and if it is, it's you know, six beds in a farmhouse in Iowa. It's not, you know, 28-bed um groundbreaking and all that stuff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's so good. I had probably the same amount of hair when I toured your first residential facility, but it was a lot darker, what little I had. Um, I can't believe how fast uh time has gone. Um, how would you define your mission and then what makes you distinctive from other similar, maybe seemingly similar ministries?
SPEAKER_04Sure. So we get called a halfway house all the time, and I hate that term. Um, yeah, it's probably where we fit, but but a halfway house would be a program where where men live to get sober and then they they kind of um dish out the care. You know, hey, you do here, you go to meetings there, and you go to a counselor there, and um, we're an all-encompassing program. So when you come to the lighthouse, everything that you need is happening there. So um we feed you, we clothe you, we we we give you
Program Length, Individualization, And Scripture
SPEAKER_04the bed, but then you have a care team that comes alongside you, you have counselors, you have um caseworkers. We are helping them through all of those things from a biblical perspective. Now, a lot of places will say they're biblical friendly, but as what that is, is anyone can come and we're not going to say yes or no, right? So you could have um a Christian and a Muslim and and um Buddhist and an atheist all in the same bedroom, and everyone's welcome, but nothing's really being taught. It's just a safe place for people to land. Um, we're teaching biblical truth at the lighthouse. Now, everyone's welcome. Um, you know, it doesn't matter what you believe or or what you think about yourself. Um, you're welcome at the lighthouse, but we're going to start be speaking truth into those things. Now, there's no requirement for you to like fall on your knees before God, but but we're going to share just the hope of the gospel with you. And we've had men graduate our program sober and that are still sober today that have never had that heart transformation. And and we're happy for them, but we're deeply sad that that they've changed the actions, but not the heart. And we know that the heart is really what what um what we're after, what what God is after. Yeah. And then we have people that come and just, I mean, it's a battle, but you see the spirit work
Funding Without Strings And Faithful Provision
SPEAKER_04and it's just life transforming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I this yeah, when you see a life from dead to life, yeah, that you can't help but be emotional. You you you think about our own stories of faith and how it's like, oh yeah, I I'm beside myself when I think about your goodness in my own life. And then you're able to be on the front lines and see other people and see God's grace, the movement of the spirit in their own life. Like you you have to be. And I mean, uh that that's it this is on par with where I was gonna ask you about just stories and testimonies. Like, I mean, we could sit here for uh we could do four episodes on the testimonies, I'm sure. 34. There you go. 34 episodes on the testimonies, but man, can you tell us just a couple stories that just really grab you?
SPEAKER_04Right before I came, I was working with my friend Sam. Sam's actually a graduate of our program, he's now employed at our thrift store. Um, Sam's parents died in a car accident when he was 10, and just his whole world crashed. His brothers were into drugs. Um, no one cared for Sam. Sam jumped from couch to couch to couch at 10 years old. And um, there was um gangs and drugs and violence, and and imagine being 10 and your whole world changes. No one to help you through that grief, no one to help you grow up. And that was
Unity In Fort Wayne And Challenge To Churches
SPEAKER_04Sam's story. Um, he was adopted um a little bit older, and that and that woman loved him dearly, but but the damage was already done. He he was into all sorts of things, um uh meth being being one of the big things, which is a big drug um in in our community. But um, Sam got arrested multiple times, and and one of those times found a Bible in jail and met Jesus. And he was serving a pretty long sentence, and um, he was up for parole and they released him, and he said no. He said, No, unless you can find me a place where God is welcome, because I don't want to go back to those other houses. I I've been there that's toxic for me. And and his parole officer loved him so much that she found the lighthouse. And um when Sam came, he was just a broken man, um, and he was loved and cared for and angry. He was very angry and and I mean the the the the kid never had anyone to say this is how you this is why you get your hair cut and this is why you shave and and the the the dude um put some deodorant on and and some of that kind of stuff. And and when when we started walking through some of those things with him, he got really
Leadership Lessons And Team Building
SPEAKER_04mad, you know. I you know um, but then he saw that we loved him, and that's why we were we were talking of those things, you know. I I've stood in mirrors in the bathroom helping guys shave because no one has ever shown them how to shave. And we had an ironing board out the other day because these guys had no idea how to iron a shirt. And it's some of those simple things, but it but all those simple things lead to uh we love you and we care for you, and um Sam is growing so much, he is he is like a sponge, and um the amount of scripture this kid can can remember and recall, and when we're talking, he's like, but it's like that verse I read the other day, or that one that you said up there like two weeks ago, and and he's he's got this view of scripture that just is blowing my mind. And um he's he's still got you know still got a struggle, still still still gets angry some, and but but he's quick to repent and he's quick to come back, and and um he's like I don't ever want to leave this place, you are my family. And and it's just it's just transforming stories like that. Or when when the guy who's never had a home says, Hey, I'm coming home tonight, yeah. You know, I mean it it's it's a it's a residential center. You're sleeping with other guys in bunk beds, right? Yeah, but but but but that's home. Yeah, and and that's fantastic. Um, we've created something that that is a place where people can be loved by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00Amen. How long
Gratitude, Spousal Support, And Closing Charge
SPEAKER_00does a man usually stay with you?
SPEAKER_04Uh as long as they need to. Um our first 30 days is a good testing ground to see whether they're a good fit for us, we're a good fit for them. Um, a lot of guys complete our 30-day program and then move on. You know, they've got to get back to their jobs and their families and things like that. Um, but if they want more um and they've done well, we'll invite them to a six-month stay um where we help them get a job and then we walk with them through that process and how to spend your money and how to budget and and all of those things. And then at six months we do a review to see, you know, are you are you ready to go back or do you need more? And we'll do just month extensions. We've had guys stay up to two years. Um, we had one guy that, you know, it he was in such a mess that he didn't even get his license for two years. Um, it was this whole two-year process just to get his driver's license back in. Um, you just can't rush some of that stuff. Right. Um, if you rush it, they fail and then they come back. And so we've learned um just to follow the spirit. And we're small enough where we can make it an individual program, but we're big enough to to to be able to say, um, you know, these are the the generic general rules that you need to follow.
SPEAKER_00Um how do you use the Bible in your uh transformation process?
SPEAKER_04Yes. Well, we don't beat people over the head with the Bible. Okay, good. Um, but the Bible is in everything we do. So um our counseling is biblically based. So when you sit down and you tell me, hey, Brandon, I'm I'm an angry person, we're gonna go to to the Bible and we're gonna see what the Bible says about anger or stress or grief or loss or um, it all ties into that. Our groups that we have on site are all biblically based. They are life skills based out of Proverbs or based out of James or and and it's all just biblical truth throughout. So you can come through our program and but you're gonna hear Bible at every step of the way. You're gonna hear gospel. Um, our our Friday night service that we do, um, it's a free community meal, that type of thing. Um, it is a it is gospel. It is, it is, it is just a 20-minute gospel every every every Friday night. And um, you won't interact with the lighthouse without hearing the gospel, whether it's in our food bank or just coming through one of our sessions or classes.
SPEAKER_00Does that preclude the court system from working with you?
SPEAKER_04Um, yes and no. Um in general, it it's okay. We we we have opted out of of funding um because the funding then limits what you can say. So while some of these other places are are raking in the big bucks, we're over here scraping the bottom of the barrel for every dollar, right? Because um we're not gonna give that piece up. So federal grants and even like um funding that follows people out of jail to pay for the rehab, we we don't take that because of those strings.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It's really good. I mean, to stay rooted in your foundation and then see that God is still able to provide. Um, and then he opens the door for impact and and transformation that allows for stories of testimonies to still be told is completely who he is.
SPEAKER_04Uh so that that Christian counseling place I worked at that told me I was too Christian, they started off really good. And then it was a kind of follow the money, right? And the money changes the gospel, and and we're not gonna do that. And people always say, Why aren't you taking that money? Or this money's a no, I I would rather, I would rather struggle for for every dollar um then than to give up the gospel because that's why we were founded out of that frustration. Yeah, I'm so thankful for those tough times because it's given us that that stance of absolutely not. We're we're gonna be number one and first and foremost committed to God in that gospel.
SPEAKER_01Amen. You know, Brandon, you've you're you're rooted here in Fort Wayne, and you know a lot of our friends, they're your friends, um, who yeah, are living out the Matthew 25 model and the work that they do, the ministries, their outreaches. And there's something unique happening here. There's uh I've tell folks all the time, I promise a question is coming out of this, but you know, uh there there were days where we definitely needed, you know, Peter Greer's book, Rooting for Rivals, because uh God was trying to stir our hearts to something different. And now I tell people, I I I think we're there's places where they're they're still needed, but I think we're we're hand in hand. We're we're looking for places to be more. Yeah, yeah. And that we're seeing that. And um, so you know, do you have a word of encouragement for the church of the city and for the city of Fort Wayne to continue to lean into that oneness that we have, uh to be together and you know, building the wall and sharing the gospel through the work and the ministries that we've been called to?
SPEAKER_04So yes, but I want to be careful. Yeah. Um, we wouldn't be needed if the church did what it was supposed to do. And and I would love to work myself out of a job, right? I would love to come beside every pastor and show them that that they are talented enough to deal with broken people and and people with addictions. Um I I don't think that day will ever come. Um but I'm challenging I challenge our our pastors and our our leaders all the time to to don't be afraid of the hard stuff. And then to those people that are in the in the in the field with us, uh even there are some great pastors in our community that that do this well, but um it's gonna be hard. It's gonna be really, really hard. It's okay. The gospel it wasn't promised to be easy. And the heart is good and we grow through that. So so don't run from the heart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, amen. That's so good. Yeah, don't grow and I think about the weariness that um the doing good does cause. But you know, the the beautiful row uh, you know, foundation or not to grow weary in it, to lean into it and uh to lean into it together, um, where we can carry each other's burdens in the work and also spur one another onward to continue to do the good work and not lay the truth of the gospel, the truth of Christ's love, uh to the Side in that work that's really good.
SPEAKER_00Your passion is powerful. It is contagious. What would you say are some of the leadership lessons that you've learned from your experiences?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, uh just just to never give up. Um I tend to try to do everything myself also. Um letting other people into that process and and um it has been a growing experience learning how to lead people instead of control people, right? Um those are hard things, but those are good things. And um building a team of people that have the same commitment to the gospel as you is is essential. Um when those people have heart for broken people, you don't have to micromanage all that because they have people's best in mind. So so hire the right people, hire slow, get rid of the toxicity um that that that looms in your in in you know in every agency, right? Um all of that gossip and backbiting and and and all of that there's no place for that um when you're helping hurting people and and hire people. I hired a guy about a year ago. I had no job for him, but I but he was the right guy, right? So uh he started in my thrift store and he worked him into the program and um but he was the right guy. He had the heart, he had the passion, he he he he was the right guy. So I hired him. So hire the right people and um get get rid of the ones that are that are toxic. I think that would be the biggest, the biggest lesson. And then um let them do the work and and come alongside them and help train them and teach them.
SPEAKER_01It's really good. Yeah, it's really good. Man, we could go again, we could cut a couple different episodes on this, man. But this one has been a blessing to us, Brandon. I mean, thank you for sharing your personal story, your passion, your heart. Um, I I got a picture of you and your wife in that moment at the table saying, Okay, Lord, what is this thing that you are are inviting us to do and uh how we answered that prayer and look what it's doing now. So thank you for joining us.
SPEAKER_04You're welcome. Let me say my wife has been a fantastic piece of this. She doesn't get as much credit as I do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, what's her name? Shout her out. Elizabeth. Elizabeth, thank you. Yeah, yeah, we really appreciate it. And uh to the Lighthouse, the the Lighthouse team um that you've you've spoken about and those who have graduated the program and now serving there. I just I want to say thank you to all of you if as you listen to the episode. You have an amazing team that is just pouring into the lives of people here in Fort Wayne and making our community better than more than anything, expanding the kingdom um in unique ways. So thank you, brother.
SPEAKER_04You're welcome. It's been the pleasure of my heart.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Blessings, blessings, bro. Yeah. Man, folks, we say this every month. Um, maybe we're a little bit too proud in him, but we we love the folks that get the opportunity to share what God's done in their life and how they are taking that and making a transformational difference in the lives of others and here in our community. So again, backdate this one, rewind it, look for the places where the Lord was trying to get your attention, or there was a personal nugget, a leadership nugget, something that was for you. Write it down, think over it, pray over it, and install it and implement it into your life. Um, but yeah, we thank you for always supporting this podcast and we pray that there was something in here that spoke to you that you can take uh into your life and into your leadership. And so until the next episode, man, you guys have an amazing Christmas. A happy new year. We'll see you in 2026.
